Showdown at the Bouzy Rouge: People V. Pg&e

by Tom Nadeau

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0933994176
• ISBN13: 9780933994171
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Comstock Bonanza Press
• Length: 116 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A well-written account of a landmark case

This is the story of a small, rural county in California's Sierra foothills that had the temerity to sue a $26-billion corporation (Pacific Gas & Electric) for causing wildfires by its failure to keep tree limbs trimmed away from its high-voltage power lines. I learned of the book when I happened to hear the author interviewed on the radio. I found it to be a very good read about an important legal case that is still having repercussions, and I strongly recommend it. A few excerpts can summarize the story better than I:From the Foreword: "Bureaucratic enclaves, in government or business, thrive on privacy. People v. PG & E affords us a rare (and brief) opportunity to peer at the inner workings of a corporation that claims to be our benefactor. However, when the curtains part, we discover a cast of characters and a plot that would have suited Dickens or Runyon." From the text: "[The book] recounts the unlikely tale of how one stubborn small-town deputy district attorney [Jenny Ross] single-handedly out-lawyered a crack team of big-city attorneys determined to save the nation's largest investor-owned utility from the ignominy of criminal prosecution." In this landmark "David v. Goliath" case, PG & E was found guilty on 739 counts and fined $1.9 million. "The first count was the big one: It accused PG & E of violating Public Resources Code Section 4421 by causing a fire on the property of another without permission as the result of a tree limb-power line contact that started the Trauner Fire near Rough and Ready, burned 500 acres, destroyed a dozen buildings and wreaked $10-12 million in property damage."Ross claimed that PG & E knew for years that its tree-trimming cutbacks were creating the kind of serious fire dangers that led to the Trauner Fire. Nevertheless, the company continued to pocket the millions in annual profits produced by a deliberate do-nothing policy."From the start, the odds against Jenny Ross and the Nevada County District Attorney's Office were widely regarded as unfavorable. One prospective juror had neatly summarized public suspicions that the PG & E case was a waste of time and money, inasmuch as the lesson learned from the O. J. Simpson criminal trial was that the side with the most money wins."Mr. Nadeau's writing is lively. My favorite line: "Diving air tankers were puking orange fire retardant on exploding trees." Another favorite: "`Pretty soon I'll clamp you in jail,' [Judge] Baker warned. And the suddenly alert bailiff rose from his chair, prepared to carry out the threat, and [co-counsel] Ward as well, if it came to it."Why the odd title? Because this very unusual story also had an unusual setting: To house the trial, the county court rented the defunct Bouzy Rouge cabaret (which, because of its Victorian décor, had the ambiance of a Gold Rush bordello). Tom Nadeau is such a thorough investigative reporter that he even tracked down the meaning of the term Bouzy Rou